Today we are discussing a festive cooking activity for Cinco de Mayo. Although it can be messy, there are many great reasons to cook with your kiddos. They can learn new vocabulary, measurement skills, sequencing skills, and more! Typically on Cinco de Mayo, people celebrate with foods like tacos, nachos, and quesadillas. We enjoy those foods too, but many kiddos do not. In fact, all of them are a textural nightmare for children with sensory issues, or picky eaters. If your child happens to enjoy tacos, here is a post where we talk about language skills you can target during taco night.

Luckily, you do not need to love salsa to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Dessert tortillas are here to save the day! First, we’ll share the recipe. Then, we’ll discuss two different levels of language skills and how to make this activity work for your child's specific needs.

Brush each tortilla with butter on both sides. Then, sprinkle each side with cinnamon/ sugar mixture.

Cut tortillas with a pizza cutter into triangle shapes.

Bake for 15 minutes, at 350 degrees.

The simplicity of this recipe makes it kid friendly and allows for practice of language skills! You could choose to enjoy the tortillas plain, or if you want a dipping component, get some whipped cream, chocolate hummus, or fruit salsa. The possibilities are endless!

Emerging Language Skills(This is for kiddos who do not consistently verbalize, or do so using 1-2 word utterances.)

Simply create utterances ranging from 1-3 words by combining the core words and nouns listed above. Remember to reinforce your child’s attempts at communication or their imitation of utterances with praise for their efforts! Here are some examples of utterances to model:

Expanding Language Skills(This is for kiddos who communicate using complete sentences, but need to work on building vocabulary and/or developing narrative skills.)

VocabularyWhile helping your child prepare the tortilla chips, model the use of higher level vocabulary. Here are some suggestions: - We are going to combine,or mix, the cinnamon and sugar.- Dredge the brush in butter. That means we will dip the brush and make sure it is coated, or covered, in butter. - Once we put butter on one side we will flip the tortilla to brush the alternate side. We must disperse, or sprinkle, the cinnamon sugar evenly! - Slice, or cut, the tortillas into triangular shapes.

Narrative SkillsDescribe the steps necessary for cooking the dessert tortillas as you complete the activity with your child. Make sure you model the appropriate use of sequencing words such as first, then, next, and finally. At the end of the task, ask your child if they can retell how to make the recipe. You may need to provide prompts to help them list all the steps.

How do you celebrate Cinco de Mayo with your kiddos? Share in the comments below!